Valia G. Hades
Nivalia G. Hades, better known by her nickname, Valia, is one of the children born to Persephone and Hades. Though her parents have a myriad of roles in myth, Valia is only destined for one of them-- Persephone's role in the myth of Cupid and Psyche. As far as princesses of the Underworld go, Valia is fairly laid-back when it comes to destiny... and it helps that she's not exactly a main character in her myth. However, as she is deeply passionate about makeup, and wishes to achieve the quality of beauty-ointment that people are willing to literally die for, Valia self-identifies as a Royal. Character Personality Though her destiny is one of Persephone's, Valia actually takes after her father in terms of personality-- she's pretty relaxed about most things, and doesn't even seem particularly concerned about passing her classes. Aside from doing her typical Underworld chores to keep her mom happy, Valia doesn't seem to care much about the whole Legacy deal, which she mostly just likes because it gives her an excuse to pursue her passion of makeup formulation and color experimentation under the guise of "preparing for my destiny." Nevertheless, she cares about her destiny enough to follow the etiquette laid out to her according to the tale, if only perfunctorily-- invite your guests in, offer them food and drink and a permanent stay in the realm of the dead, all of the typical things a good host should do. Her pet peeves are few and far between, but bad table manners is one of them. Valia largely comes across as polite and quiet, and unlike her royal edgelord of a brother, she doesn't really play up the whole "I am literally a child of the Underworld, I am death" thing. It's easy to forget just whose daughter Nivalia is, easy enough to merely think of her as yet another child of one of the Earth goddesses... until she tries to tell a joke. Valia has a fairly morbid sense of humor, a side effect of being surrounded by death all the time-- after all, when you're in the Underworld, there is little else to discuss (or, in the case of Hyacinthus, discus-- haha). As she was born in the era of the Fall of Rome and experienced the subsequent influx of souls at home, Valia never seems particularly concerned about violence or injury, no matter how severe. She dislikes having to resort to warfare, as she views it as "the least chill solution," but when she punches someone, she hits hard-- and always with a pleasant smile and polite apology (which she likely doesn't really mean, but she does have manners). Valia's "powers of life and death" are largely limited by time, and also her general apathy towards the lives of mortals. Though she is capable of closing mortal wounds for up to ten minutes, or animating a recently-dead sentient creature for up to fifteen, most of the time, the only thing she cares to do with her powers is to play jokes on the Castleteria cooks. Who in their right mind would prevent anything actually sentient from returning to Hades' halls as they were meant to? Certainly not Valia-- and she would even be happy to introduce them to her dad, who's really a chill sort of guy. The less severe the wound or the less sentient the creature in question, the longer Valia's powers will last... but as she more or less doesn't care to involve herself in the affairs of mortals, the most use she's going to get out of that sort of thing is reanimating a chicken just to watch the Castleteria ladies' expressions as it feathers, seasons, and broils itself. She can keep nonsentient plants and small papercuts indefinitely. Hobbies and Interests Though you wouldn't be able to judge it from the unobtrusive colors which normally garb her face, Valia's greatest passion in this world is makeup, and she avidly follows several bloggers on Princetagram and Youtube (though she does not post much herself, being somewhat camera-shy). However, her particular fascination isn't with decorating herself with the most eye-catching or jaw-dropping designs... but rather, with formulating the makeup itself and inventing new pigments. She belongs to an indie makeup label where she mostly formulates new shades of pinks and ever-darker blacks. They are all named things like "Existential Crisis" and "Still-Beating Heart." Just for kicks, Valia particularly enjoys figuring out the formulas to make dupes of significantly pricier brands. She sells them online for a fraction of the cost, or even occasionally just gives them away to makeup artists who attend the same school-- she thinks it's fun, and also good publicity for her indie label. As a daughter of the goddess of spring, Valia also enjoys gardening... but especially undead gardening. Any time another student throws out a houseplant or bouquet of flowers that they have failed to keep alive, Valia enjoys rescuing them from the trash and turning them into zombified echoes of the plants they once were, keeping tatters of plant material more or less intact. However, she is keenly aware that even plantlife must kneel to the power of Hades eventually, and will never reanimate the same plant twice. Her balcony is full of potted plants, both alive and dead. She likes weaving discarded flowers into crowns, and occasionally returning discarded houseplants to the people who misplaced them, improved so that they are much, much harder to kill. She perceives any screams thus elicited as shrieks of delight. Though she doesn't often get the opportunity, she also enjoys surfing and horseback riding. Appearance Valia is slim of wrist and ankle, with the sort of delicate boning suited to bangles and anklets of all varieties-- and so she is, indeed, typically found wearing large amounts of jewelry, favoring either broad bands or slim, dainty chains. (Hades, after all, is not only Lord of the Underworld, but too god of precious metals.) Though her hair behaves like mortal hair at the roots, it melds into a fizzing, choppy, lingering mist the further down you go-- talk about serious split ends. Her skin is of a gray pallor from years within the halls of the dead, and her face is heavily pockmarked. Most of her clothes are torn and decaying at the edges, though more as a result of her heritage than due to age or misuse. She likes wearing flowing fabrics of unusual, often eye-catching cuts. Usually, she accessorizes with an exaggerated pin or belt, and is almost never seen without a corona of (probably dead or dried) flowers around her head. Valia dislikes wearing shoes, and favors soleless sandals instead. In spite of-- or, indeed, perhaps because of her passion for makeup, Valia actually favors looks more subtle than the sort that get posted to Princetagram. She applies any and all contouring with a lighter hand than most in order to avoid drawing undue attention to her pockmarks, and prefers lipsticks in dark grays and plums fairly close to her shade of nude. However, it is not at all unusual or unreasonable to see her attempting to test out newly developed products in an entire rainbow of colors, and about once weekly, she goes "all out." Her eyes are an electric green. Myth: Cupid and Psyche How the Myth Goes This is a link to the myth in its entirety. This is a link to the myth's Wikipedia page. In the myth of Cupid and Psyche, the jealous Aphrodite (also known as Venus) absolutely cannot stand her daughter-in-law, who is among the mortals rumored to be even more beautiful than she. After Psyche mistakenly breaks Cupid's heart, Aphrodite sets before Psyche a series of tests that she must complete in order to be worthy of seeing Cupid again. They are fairly impossible tasks, by all means. First, she orders Psyche to sort an enormous mess of tiny grains into piles of their individual varieties-- wheat grains with wheat grains, barley grains with barley, and so on. Psyche, luckily, is rescued by a bunch of ants who take pity on her. Then, she asks Psyche to obtain wool from a particular herd of murderous sheep with golden wool, which Psyche does by gathering bits and pieces left on brambles along their grazing path. Thirdly, Aphrodite demands that Psyche bring her water from the River Styx. Psyche gets as far as the terrifying cliffs before the dragons force her to turn back, but Zeus sends an eagle to snag the water for her so she can just be done with this questline already. But the fourth and most impossible task, Psyche can only complete herself-- in full. Aphrodite demands that she go to the Underworld, a task which had thus far only been completed by heroes such as Hercules and Odysseus. A task that the mortal Psyche was not expected to return from. Her goal? To entreat the Queen of Hell itself for her beauty-ointment. Persephone, also known as Prosperine, is that Queen of Hell. Hades has many traps laid for Psyche when she enters the Underworld, but thanks to Deus Ex Infodump, Psyche avoids them all. Persephone invites Psyche to stay for dinner, during which she casually eats while making Psyche kneel at her feet. Suitably appeased by this show of humility, she at grants Psyche her beauty ointment and sends her on her way. (Her beauty ointment, by the way, is so powerful that mortals can apparently perish from merely looking at it. Talk about makeup that slays.) Psyche and her husband get back together, and they live happily ever after. How Valia Fits Into It The terrifying Persephone turned everyone who her husband looked at for too long into a plant of some sort, and so Hades was loyal to her and her alone. Together, they produced Valia and her brother. Destined for her mother's role in the Cupid and Psyche myth, Valia enjoys being able to devote her time to creating makeup worthy of the legends. As a child, she enjoyed sitting at her mother's boudoir and playing around with the various kohl-cakes and crushed-spice lip colors. As time progressed, she learned how to powder hair and blacken teeth. Nowadays, she avidly follows makeup bloggers and formulates her own chemically advanced beauty treatments, ever on the lookout for the next big trend. Until Psyche is born and the the myth is re-told, however, Valia mostly just goes around and helps her parents make sure all souls get into Hades. It's not particularly exciting, but Valia guesses that every kid has chores, so she'll do hers anyways. Relationships Family Mother- Persephone In addition to being Queen of the Dead (or the Goddess of Necromancy and Eternal Life, depending on which cult one belongs to), Persephone is also a great mom, though she can be a little bit embarrassing at times. Aside from the brief stint where she attempted to be "cool and edgy" by wearing clothing from Hot Topic (a stint which must never again be spoken of), Persephone also has a tendency to react very strongly when she believes her children are being bullied. People may or may not have been turned into plants. Persephone's active (and frankly frightening) parenting style strikes Valia as somewhat a bit too Extra-- lest anyone forget the incident where Mom attended a PTA meeting and brought a still-bleeding wild boar when it was her turn on snack duty. Valia's pretty sure that her mom thinks she should take her role as Princess of the Underworld and Ultimate Dinner Party Hostess more seriously, too... but her role in the story isn't that big, and she doesn't think there's much to stress over. Though she takes after her father in terms of general personality, Valia did inherit one particular trait from her mother-- they have a shared distaste for bad table manners. Father- Hades As possibly one of the chillest gods in the pantheon, Hades is something of an indulgent parent. Having accrued vast amounts of wealth by charging money for entry into the afterlife, but also having nowhere to actually spend it, he tends to spoil his children (much to Persephone's chagrin). In an attempt to instill some variety of work ethic into them-- although Hades doesn't personally understand why that's necessary, when they will never need to work for a living since they are denizens of the dead-- he asks that they do a few chores to help out around the house. And by "the house," he means "the Underworld." Mostly, these chores consist of making sure nobody tries to escape death, keeping Cerberus walked and fed, and ensuring that certain souls are properly taken. Valia is totally and completely aware that there are no actual consequences for failing to do these things-- she thinks her brother might be over 1500 years overdue on taking one of those souls?-- but she does her household chores like any other kid, lest Mom make good on her threat to revoke her access to the family checking account. Brother- Paris "PHades" Although she and her brother don't necessarily see eye-to-eye all the time, Valia considers them to be quite close. Though he's a bit of a hothead, Valia likes hanging around him-- even if he's just complaining about the Entirely Too Extra thing their mom just did, or how the mortals don't pay them proper respect, or how the foe he's been in an 1800-year-old grudge match with escaped retribution yet again. Too laid-back to really be bothered by PHades' ragefits, Valia privately thinks he's kind of entertaining to watch. When he's not flying off the handle about something or other, Valia just sort of enjoys hanging out with him-- whether PHades is showing her his latest mixtape, or she's been allowed to do his makeup, or even just enjoying a casual chat about the best way to shank a guy (a favored topic over the last millennia). Despite being roughly 400 years younger, Valia is defensive of her brother and will rationalize his actions no matter what he does. Though she generally refrains from violence out of laziness, her laissez-faire attitude towards injury in general means that insulting her brother to her face is the quickest way to get punched. Friends Friendship does not easily come to Valia-- particularly giver her proclivities for making increasingly morbid jokes. Though she attempts to make friends with the students who are doomed to die for their fairytales, most of them do not appreciate her warm welcome to the Underworld for the soon-to-be-dead. Valia's friends are usually more of the... potted plant variety. However, Valia counts the ever-popular C.A. Cupid among her friends... perhaps something to do with her origins in a realm where the undead roam the halls of schools. On Spring Break, she is known to visit the locale of Zephyrus' beach and catch a few waves with the guy and his family. Pets Valia has a pet three-headed-dog from one of Cerberus' broods, though he is only a puppy in comparison at a mere 200 years old. His names are Beauregard, Tristan, and Caprice, depending on which head she's attempting to get the attention of. Contrary to most dogs, which bark if an unknown person attempts to enter a room, Valia's Cerberus will refuse to let people leave it-- including Valia herself! Getting out of the dorms to go to class can be a real hassle. She also avidly rides horses, and her own steed is a beautiful white mare named Bubonia nearing 1000 years old. Though she was unfortunately forced to leave her horse back in the Underworld due to difficulties in stabling space, her equestrian skills have not faltered since she began attending Ever After High... although the mortal horses are a sorry sight in comparison to Bubonia. Romance Though she has melted for girls aplenty in her 1500 years of life, Valia presently has a crush on a non-myth student at Ever After High. She is content to simply be, however, and to enjoy the rush of poetic delight that comes from having a crush at all-- she does not expect to reveal her feelings anytime soon, if at all, and nor does she have plans to even introduce herself to the object of her affections. Enemies Though she's barely even spoken to the guy, all Valia knows is that presently redacted apparently has it out for her brother-- completely unprovoked! Though she's usually very relaxed about what other people do in their own time, redacted's repeated attempts to sabotage her brother's basic household chores are starting to bother her, especially since PHades is only doing his job. Though she treats him pleasantly enough when he isn't unreasonably disturbing Hades family chores, Valia has no reservations about punching redacted's face in when he is attempting to intervene in PHades' business, although she does politely apologize before doing so. The matter has escalated to the point where Valia and redacted have begun deliberately sabotaging each others' experiments. To something of a lesser extent, Valia also dislikes redacted, an old foe of her brother's who wrongfully escaped the clutches of otherwise-inevitable death. However, she recognizes the grudge as PHades' business, and does not intervene-- although she has been known to make poignant comments about his questionable makeup choices every now and then. Her primary issue with redacted is attempting to figure out why redacted continues to help him escape the rightful ebb and flow of life and death, though it is by now far past his time. Trivia * Her middle name is "Grenadine," shared with the pomegranate-based sweetener syrup. ** Her hair is also similarly colored. * As her parents are the mythological embodiments of death and rebirth, Nivalia is named after the Snowdrop flower, Galanthus nivalis, one of the earliest-blooming flowers and a herald of spring. ** It can also be taken as an adjective describing that something is "as white as snow," a subtle dig at EAH and its fairytale origins. * Valia was born with her pockmark scarring. She's also tired of people asking how it happened. Quotes (TBA) Category:Females Category:Royals Category:Greek Mythology Category:Characters Category:LGBTA+